MTC ART GALLERY

Over the last decade, Gary Bean's home away from home has been Yoshi's Jazz House, where he has faithfully captured on film the steady stream of jazz masters who regularly perform at the popular Oakland nightclub. Along the way, he has built a unique historical record of great moments and people in jazz, and of Oakland's central role in nurturing jazz talent. "It started out as a way of making sure that people understood what's happening at Yoshi's in terms of the important artists and important music," Bean said. "It's a way of keeping the history of jazz, and specifically of jazz in Oakland, and making sure there is a visual record of these important artists, many of whom are no longer on this planet." In the last several years alone, Bean said, the jazz world has lost such pillars as Stanley Turrentine, Art Farmer, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Gene Harris -- all of whom appear in the current exhibit.

Bean has developed a trademark style that captures individual artists mid-note, using high-speed film and available light. "I've always found flash to be artificial looking," he explained, adding that his technique conveys the ambience and mood of the performances. While the images show unusual mastery of photography, Bean is in fact a self-taught photographer who makes his living as a pediatrician in private practice in Berkeley. "There are few things more spiritually gratifying than being able to serve kids this way," he said. The financial stability provided by his busy medical practice allows Bean to donate all proceeds from the sale of his photos to two local music institutions that offer jazz training to children: the Oaktown Jazz Workshop and Cazadero Music Camp. In the works is a book form of the exhibit that will likewise benefit these programs.

A classically trained musician who as a child received piano instruction under a scholarship at Mills College in Oakland, Bean currently plays keyboard, trumpet and alto sax in a local jazz ensemble, Schedule 2 (the name is a play on a medical term, and also alludes to the fact that the members lead dual lives as musicians and professionals in other fields). Bean makes his home in Oakland with his wife and three children, all of whom enjoy joining their father at Yoshi's.

Special thanks to Mary Ellen Landes of the Collectors Gallery at the Oakland Museum for her help in curating and sponsoring this show.

Photos from top to bottom: Billy Harper, Elvin Jones, Sonny Fortune.
All photos ©2001 Gary Bean.